Common Craft

via Creative Commons » CC News by Cameron Parkins on 15 September

Common Craft is a company that makes videos which are "short, simple and focused on making complex ideas easy to understand." These videos range in topic - from Twitter to social bookmarking to electing the US President – and are made using a technique Common Craft calls Paperworks, a whiteboard-and-paper format that “designed to cut out the noise and stick to what matters”.

Common Craft makes its videos available online for businesses to license as educational tools, but also shares the videos widely under a CC BY-NC-ND license. There are definite advantages for businesses in getting the licensed versions, most notably portability and quality.

Outside of this, the CC licensed Common Craft videos have garnered heightened popularity on YouTube and other sharing sites, increasing their name recognition and ubiquity – two factors that have hopefully been instrumental in expanding their growing list of custom-video clients.

Common Craft has a great video posted on its licensing process that explains it all clearly and simply – making it not only informative but also a great example of the production style.

Hazel's comment:
Couldn't have said it better myself so I didn't try. Great post Cameron and thanks for reminding me that I hadn't shared Common Craft with my readers for quite a while. I just love the simplicity of the idea and the visuals stick in your mind (at least they do in mine because I like to see when I'm learning).

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